Robert Bokies has been a fixture in the Durant High School track and cross country program for incredibly the better part of nearly seven decades.
The 1959 DHS graduate was a standout multi-sport athlete for the Lions and then as a coach, including since 2007 as a cross country and assistant track coach helping build each program throughout that time span.
That makes Bokies an easy selection as the lone 2026 honoree into the Durant Athletic Hall of Fame this week when the Lions host Midwest City at Paul Laird Field.
As a student athlete for the Lions he participated in both football and track while earning many honors along the way. He was named the Lions Club’s Most Popular Football Player, was a Jimmy Wessinger Memorial award recipient and was a key member of the school’s 1957 State Champ ionship Track Team as he was the regional long jump champion.
He began his coaching career at Durant in 1961 while still in college at Southeastern, helping with the seventh grade football team. Two years later he became a fulltime teacher and coach at Durant High School.
Following a five-year stint in Texas he returned to DHS in 1970 where he soon started the boys cross country program. Bokies coached a handful of athletes that earned state and regional honors as well as sponsoring a local AAU Track & Field Meet.
From 1973 to the start of 1983 he returned to Texas coaching at Ennis and Whitesboro before the call back to Durant High School, where he was an assistant coach on the Lions’ 1983 state championship football team. In late 1984 he returned back to Texas and taught at Sherman and Grayson College before retiring in 1997. During that span he coached several more track and field athletes that won state championships and was an AAU National Junior Track and Field qualifier.
Bokies returned to Durant for a year and then was hired at Madill for the next nine years until returning to DHS in 2007 and has been with the Lions ever since.
During that tenure the cross country program has grown exponentially and won a pair of girls team regional titles in 2015 and 2019. The Lions have also had multiple track and field individual regional champs, state qualifiers, medalists and even state champs.
DHS has earned four state academic championships in Bokies time, adding current state records in girls discus and the 400-meter dash. He was even named the Oklahoma Coaches Association Region 6 Cross Country Coach of the Year in 2013.
